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Overview

Industrial Relations 308: Occupational Health and Safety is a three-credit, senior-level course that examines issues of worker health and safety (and life and death) within their political and economic contexts and in the workplace. Over the past three decades, the field of occupational health and safety has grown and developed, and an extensive amount of scientific and technical knowledge on the subject has accumulated. Nevertheless, conflicts among practitioners and scholars on even the most basic questions still persist. These disagreements are driven by inherent differences in interest and power between workers and employers (or labour and capital, if you will), which together form the conditions of industrial relations. Scientific arguments often disguise the real debate, which concerns the value attached to preserving the life and health of workers in the workplace. Occupational health and safety cannot be examined without also considering the power dynamics that operate both within and around the job.

Outline

Unit 1 – Occupational Health and Safety: An Introduction

Unit 2 – Hazards and Control

Unit 3 – Workplace Interventions

Unit 4 – Health and Safety in Practice

Evaluation

To receive credit for IDRL 308, you must complete two online quizzes and two written assignments, write a final examination, achieve a minimum grade of D (50%) or better on the final examination, and obtain an overall grade of at least “D” (50 percent) on the entire course. The weighting of the composite course grade is as follows:

Activity

Weighting

Telephone Quiz

10%

Two Online Quizzes (10% each)

20%

Two Written Assignments (15%; 25%)

40%

Final Examination

30%

Total

100%

The final examination for this course must be taken online with an AU-approved exam invigilator at an approved invigilation centre. It is your responsibility to ensure your chosen invigilation centre can accommodate online exams. For a list of invigilators who can accommodate online exams, visit the Exam Invigilation Network.

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University's online Calendar.

Course Materials

Textbooks

Other Resources

All other materials are also available to students online; including a study guide.

Challenge for Credit Course Overview

The Challenge for Credit process allows students to demonstrate that they have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, and intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university level course.